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Hi, and welcome back to The
Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing

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people, unresolved cases, and UK
true crime. Thank you to everyone for

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supporting the Twelve Days of Missing People
episodes in December. So many of you

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shared the episodes, commented on them
and told me your opinion, so thanks

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so much. Today we're going to
be covering a case that I actually had

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lined up for the Twelve Days of
Missing People. However, when I started

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researching it and getting into it,
I realized that it was quite a big

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case with a lot of twists and
turns, and I wanted to do it

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justice. As a main episode,
we are going to be exploring the disappearance

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of Stephen Clark from Saltburne in nineteen
ninety two in North Yorkshire. His disappearance

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was within such a short time frame
and in such an odd place that his

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family have no idea what has happened
to him. I want to thank Rachel

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for another case suggestion this week.
This episode is about a missing person case

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and so does not contain any graphic
detail. However, there is some detail

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about a road traffic accident involving a
child, so listener discretion is advised.

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Mask or Masked by the Sea is
a village in the County of North Yorkshire,

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located within the borough of red Carr
in Cleveland. It's a coastal village

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which has a variety of different amenities
in housing. However, many of its

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residents travel further afield to nearby towns
like Middlesbrough for work, and so Mask

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acts as more of a commuter town
to these larger areas. It's generally a

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quiet area, with many of the
residents knowing one another and saying hello when

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they see each other in the street. Mask is where Doris and Charles Clark

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eventually settled down with their family.
The couple, along with their two children,

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Stephen and Victoria, had moved around
quite a lot over the years.

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They were originally from south Shield,
South Tyneside. However, they had moved

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around to several places with their children. While Stephen and Victoria were small,

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they lived in Kirkliston in Scotland,
and it was here, when Stephen was

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around two and a half that a
terrible accident occurred. Doris would later explain

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that she'd popped out to the shop
one day and that she hadn't realized that

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Stephen had followed her out. When
she got outside on the road, she

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noticed that he was there, but
by that point it was too late.

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Stephen was involved with a horrific collision
with an oncoming lorry and he was left

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lifeless on the street. Fortunately,
with medical attention, Stephen was able to

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re cover. However, he was
left with life changing injuries, which meant

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that he walked with a limp and
had little use of his left arm.

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This of course changed the trajectory of
Stephen's life, and Doris later said that

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he wasn't the same little boy that
he'd been before. This, of course,

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was a traumatic and distressing moment for
the Clark family, but they struggled

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through it together. The family later
moved to South Africa before returning back to

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the UK in nineteen ninety and living
in Surrey. It was in nineteen ninety

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one that they decided to move to
Mask. At this point when they moved,

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both of their children were in their
early twenties. Stephen was twenty two

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and Victoria twenty one. Victoria didn't
make the move to Mask, but she

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would later describe her brother to the
BBC, saying that he was an avid

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Arsenal fan and had a love of
music. He played the baritone euphonium and

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he had a love of it and
was a great swimmer. She stated.

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He had a great sense of humor, an infectious laugh. You couldn't help

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but laugh when being around him.
It's clear that Stephen didn't let his disabilities

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stop him from doing many of the
things that he enjoyed, and he'd grown

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up into a fairly resilient and determined
young man who wanted to better his life

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and get onto the career ladder.
This was proving difficult for him though,

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due to his disability, and it
was something that his parents would later say

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weighed on him quite heavily. He
wanted to have a job and have his

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own independent life, and this is
why he attended training courses at the Rathbone

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Society. Rathbones is a registered charity
that seeks to help young people and adults

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over the age of fourteen to get
on to work based apprenticeships and traineeships.

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They primarily work with people who need
support to access training and overcome barriers to

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employment. This was what Stephen was
struggling with, and he embraced the challenge

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of the training courses and enjoyed them
In fact, he had been involved with

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a training video for the charity and
was given an award by Andrew Neil for

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his success with the program and his
determination to overcome the barriers he was facing.

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He was named Apprentice of the Year. Stephen was clearly a shining example

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of what could be achieved through the
charity. However, he still struggled to

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gain employment through the usual means.
Stephen spent a lot of time with his

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parents and sometimes socializing with people at
the pub, going to football with his

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dad Charles, and going on walks
along the seafront with his mum Doris.

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Going for a walk was exactly what
Stephen and his mum Doris did on Monday,

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the twenty eighth of December nineteen ninety
two. That day, Charles states

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that he had asked Stephen if he
wanted to come to watch a Middlesbrough football

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game with him, as this was
something that they often did together. Charles

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told him that he would have to
pay for himself, though, and Stephen

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reportedly was a little put out and
said that he didn't want to go.

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It was then that he agreed to
go for a walk with his mum instead.

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While his dad traveled to the match
anyway. Doris later explained what happened

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that day, saying she couldn't remember
if the pair had set off together or

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if Stephen had set off first and
then she caught him up. But they

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headed to the front with the plan
to walk to saltburn Saltburne is a town

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around two and a half miles away
from Mask which can be reached by a

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walk along the beach. Doris later
said that this usually took around forty to

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forty five minutes. When they reached
Saltburne, Dorris states that Stephen went into

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the gents public toilets that are located
on the beach. She thought she may

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as well also use the ladies toilets
while she was there. She said that

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she went in and then came back
out, but Stephen hadn't come out yet.

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While she was stood there, she
said she noticed two men and a

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little girl outside the toilets. She
said that one man went into the toilet

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while the other man stayed with the
little girl, and then the other man

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went in. While this was happening, Doris didn't see Stephen, and as

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she stood there, she began to
wonder if he'd already set off back home

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without her. After a while,
and without any sign of Stephen coming out

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of the bathroom, she decided that
this is what he must have done,

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and she set off towards home as
well. When Doris arrived back at the

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house, however, Stephen wasn't there. This was strange, given that she'd

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waited for him and he hadn't emerged
from the toilets. Doris began to one

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where exactly Stephen could have gone if
he wasn't at home. When Charles got

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home, he was told by Doris
that Stephen hadn't arrived back and that he

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was missing. Charles stated that he
immediately went back out to Saltburn Beach and

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the area around the toilets where Stephen
had last been seen. He said he

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began shouting for him and searching in
any of the areas that he could have

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been. Charles would later explain that
due to the very bumpy terrain and slippery

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sand dunes, he was worried about
Stephen being able to navigate it. Due

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to the difficulties that he had moving
around, He said that he feared that

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Stephen had fallen and was struck somewhere
and didn't have the dexterity to get himself

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out. He didn't find anything at
all at the beach and couldn't locate Stephen.

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He returned home, and Dorris and
Charles decided to ring the police.

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They later explained that the police told
them that they would have to another twenty

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four hours before they could report him
missing, given that he had only just

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disappeared. By this point, they
hadn't seen Stephen for around four hours,

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but it wasn't exactly like him to
just disappear, and one thing they couldn't

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understand is how he just disappeared from
the public toilets like that. It was

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a very small period of time that
Stephen seemed to have just vanished. The

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next day, he still hadn't returned, and Charles stated that he returned back

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to the beach to try and find
him. He had hoped that he would

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find him there and that he had
just decided to go somewhere by himself.

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While this was unlike him, it
was a possibility. When Charles still couldn't

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find him, they officially reported Stephen
missing. It wasn't clear where Stephen could

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be or even why he hadn't returned
to the family home There didn't seem to

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be any obvious reason why he would
have wanted to leave his life behind,

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and Doris would later confirm that none
of his belongings were missing. He hadn't

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even left home with anything on him
aside from the clothes that he had on.

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He hadn't even taken his glasses,
his wallet, or his watch with

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him. There was no evidence that
he had preplanned this disappearance or manufactured it

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as a way to make a new
life. Doris and Charles would later explain

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that Stephen had been going through a
bit of a hard time recently with his

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job struggles and also one of his
grandparents. Charles's mother had died not long

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before, and this had hit Stephen
hard as he was close to her.

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Nothing else seemed to have changed that
would make him depressed or change his outlooking

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life. Doris would actually say that
things seemed to be looking up for Stephen,

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as he'd met a woman at the
local pub the ship in around ten

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days before he had disappeared. Charles
stated this relationship with the girl lasted about

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a week or ten days. He
liked to go to the local pub she

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was there. They were about the
same age. They never met other than

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in the pub it was days before
he went missing. Doris also added he

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saw her around him mask. I
don't know how long they'd known each other.

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They met in the ship in,
but I've no idea how old she

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was. For the Clerks, this
information shows that Stephen was happy and actually

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had some things to look forward to
before his disappearance. For them, they

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just couldn't understand it. Appeals were
made in the local area, with posters

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being put up and publicity in the
local newspapers. Stephen's description, along with

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what he was wearing, was distributed
to the public. Stephen was six fought

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three inches tall, with a medium
build, blue eyes, and brown hair.

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He was last seen wearing a maroon
crew neck jumper, a navy blue

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parker with fur hood, blue denim
jeans, and gray trainers. It was

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hoped that this description, along with
the fact that Stephen was a tall man

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and walked with a distinctive limp,
would be enough to get information coming in

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about his whereabouts. Dorris and Charles
regularly spoke to the press about their son's

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disappearance and also appealed for information.
Charles would later say that the publicity surrounding

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his disappearance was good and Stephen's case
was featured on national television in nineteen ninety

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three, as well as in news
articles. This publicity did lead to many

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possible sightings coming in to Cleveland police, and sifting through these sightings was a

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time consuming process to discover which ones
were credible. There were two sightings that

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came in that stood out. These
sightings came from people who knew Stephen personally

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and were convinced that they had seen
him. Mask and Saltburn are small communities

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and so many people knew one another, and these sightings were more credible as

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a result. The first of these
sightings was on the thirtieth of December,

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just two days after Stephen went missing. This sighting took place in red Car

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Town Center, around six miles away
from Saltburn, where he had last been

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seen, and only four and a
half miles from Mask. The sighting took

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place on red Car High Street and
was reported by a man named Stan Cammish.

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Stan knew Stephen and his dad,
Charles, from the pub, and

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so when he spotted him in Red
Car, he knew it was him.

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Stan had met a woman in Red
Car that day who he later recounted the

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story of seeing Stephen two straight after
it happened. This woman said that Stan

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had met her and then went somewhere
on the High Street for a couple of

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minutes. When he returned, he
asked her if she saw who he was

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talking to, and when she said
she didn't, he proceeded to describe Stephen

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to her, whom she did know
from the same pub. She said she

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didn't really think anything of it until
they realized that by that time Stephen was

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officially a missing person. This sighting
would seem to be quite credible and not

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one of mistaken identity, given at
Stan said that he had spoke with Stephen

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that day. Cleveland police would later
say, though, that Stan would change

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this account in nineteen ninety nine,
now saying that he only saw the man

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from afar and that it looked like
the way he walked, but he didn't

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actually see his face. This was
a distinct change from his initial statement.

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The fact that Stan told his initials
story on that same day, the thirtieth

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of December, does seem to lend
credibility to it. The other sighting that

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came in was from the fourteenth of
January, over two weeks after Stephen disappeared.

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This sighting was reported by a woman
who knew Stephen and lived on Balmorl

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Gardens in Saltburn. She stated that
on the fourteenth she'd noticed Stephen coming up

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the steps from an area called Valley
Gardens. That route came from the direction

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of the beach where Stephen had last
been seen. Interestingly, Stephen wasn't alone

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that day. The woman stated that
he was with a man aged between fifty

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to sixty years old, was bald
and gray hair, wearing a long gray

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coat and glasses. Once again,
this sighting appeared to carry more weight given

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that this woman knew Stephen and was
less likely to be mistaken. This begged

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the question if it was Stephen,
what had been doing and who was the

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man that he was with. The
not knowing and being in limbo was hell

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for the Clark family, who continued
to hope and appeal for answers as to

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where Stephen was. They continually spoke
to the press and tried to drum up

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as much publicity as they could.
They were successful in doing this, but

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unfortunately information that was coming in did
not locate Stephen or give any clues as

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to where he could be. Weeks, months, and years began to pass

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with little being found. Stephen's case
was regularly included in Cleveland Police's cold case

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reviews, but each time nothing new
was discovered. In nineteen ninety nine,

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a significant development occurred. A letter
arrived at Gisboro Police Station, the police

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station dealing with Stephen's case and around
five miles from the family home. The

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letter was addressed to the Stephen Clark
Incident Room at Gisboro Police Station. Police

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did not disclose the contents of the
letter at the time, but there was

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the implication that whatever was in it
gave the police a tip to what may

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have happened to Stephen. The author
remained anonymous and police were at a loss

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to try and trace them, but
it seemed significant given that whoever it was

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had felt the need to write it
seven years after Stephen disappeared. Nothing more

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seemed to have been done with it
at the time, although police stated that

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it was assessed by officers and the
information recorded, it seemed that without any

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new leads and without locating Stephen,
police were at a loss. During these

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reviews, police continued to look for
any signs of Stephen living elsewhere or having

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a new life, but unfortunately,
no proof of life for him was found.

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Stephen's bank account and savings account both
had money in them at the time

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that he went missing, but years
later they remained untouched. This was a

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concern for both the police and his
family. His family continued to have hope

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that Stephen would be found, and
they decided to stay where they were in

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their home in mask despite feeling like
they wanted to move away. They knew

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that Stephen knew their house and were
reluctant to move away, hoping that one

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day he would walk back through the
door. Despite the time that had elapsed,

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they made sure that they still tried
to keep Stephen's case in the public

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eye, speaking to the press and
working with the Missing People charity. In

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00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:48.000
two thousand and ten, they spoke
to the Gazette on the eighteenth anniversary of

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Stephen's disappearance, discussing how difficult it
had been for the nearly two decades that

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he was missing. Charles said,
everybody says how sad it's been eighteen years,

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00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:03.240
but it doesn't change how you feel. It's exactly the same as it

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was when he first became a missing
person. Doris added, he just literally

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00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:15.279
disappeared. We went for a walk
together. He decided to nip into the

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gents. I popped into the ladies
and when I came out and waited for

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00:19:18.440 --> 00:19:22.440
quite a while to see if he
was there or if he was coming out.

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00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:29.799
Nothing happened. He didn't appear,
and we haven't seen him since they're

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00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:33.759
not knowing is such a common theme
in missing person cases, and it's something

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00:19:33.799 --> 00:19:40.839
that must absolutely devastate a family.
Another ten years would pass in Stephen's case,

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00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:44.880
and in two thousand and nineteen,
a new cold case unit review began

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00:19:44.920 --> 00:19:49.519
into his disappearance. It was in
twenty twenty, however, that police announced

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00:19:49.519 --> 00:19:55.559
that they were now treating Stephen's disappearance
no longer as a missing person inquiry,

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00:19:56.039 --> 00:20:00.079
but a murder case, due to
the fact that they could establish no proof

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00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:04.680
of life for him. While this
was a significant development, what would come

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00:20:04.759 --> 00:20:11.400
next would be a bombshell. On
the fourteenth of September twenty twenty, arrests

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00:20:11.400 --> 00:20:15.640
of what were described by Detective Chief
Inspector Seawan Page as two suspects were made

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00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:22.400
in relation to murdering Stephen Clark.
These two suspects would turn out to be

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00:20:22.519 --> 00:20:26.640
Charles and Doris Clark, Stephen's parents, who were now in their early eighties.

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This was absolutely shocking to the local
community and came as even more of

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00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:38.920
a shock to Charles and Doris.
Doris later explained that a policewoman and three

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00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:45.480
planeclosed police officers turned up at their
door around eight am while she was starting

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00:20:45.519 --> 00:20:49.759
breakfast and Charles was in the shower
when they said that they were being arrested

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00:20:49.759 --> 00:20:55.000
for murdering Stephen. They couldn't believe
it, and Charles said that he thought

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00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.720
it must be some sort of joke. He said he was very abrupt with

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00:20:57.799 --> 00:21:03.079
the officers and told them to go
away and behave yourself. The police,

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00:21:03.079 --> 00:21:08.559
however, were not joking and took
the pairing for interview. Doris would later

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00:21:08.599 --> 00:21:14.279
say that the first interview she was
involved with, police were querying her story

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of that day and their walk to
the beach. She claims they told her

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00:21:18.680 --> 00:21:21.799
that it was just a story and
that they didn't believe that they made the

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00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:25.839
walk at all, telling her that
she was violent, controlling, and a

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murderer. This came as such a
shock to the parents that they couldn't believe

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it. The police appeared to be
now working on the theory that Doris's story

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00:21:36.400 --> 00:21:40.160
that she went for a walk with
Stephen that day was false, and that

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actually she and Charles had both been
involved in killing him. The evidence that

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00:21:45.759 --> 00:21:48.559
the police had for this was initially
unclear, and within four days of the

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arrests, police were doing a full
scale search of the Clark home, both

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inside and digging up the rear garden
looking for evidence. The search lasted for

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00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.359
five days, and Charles later said
that they searched through everything in the house,

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00:22:06.000 --> 00:22:11.240
dug up the garden, and moved
the shed to dig underneath. The

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00:22:11.319 --> 00:22:15.640
warrant for the search was obtained on
the eighth of September, The arrest took

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place on the fourteenth, and the
searches took place on the eighteenth. This

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00:22:21.720 --> 00:22:26.319
all happened very quickly, and the
searches were concluded after five days. The

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clerks didn't understand what had happened after
twenty eight years of treating Stephen's cases a

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00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:38.000
missing person investigation, and why they
had suddenly become suspects. They were horrified

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by the idea that Cleveland police believed
that they had anything to do with Stephen's

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00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:48.960
death. After their arrests, Charles
and Dorris agreed to be filmed for an

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ITV documentary that followed them and what
happened after the arrests. Mike Williams Thomas,

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00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:02.359
former police detective, became involved in
the documentary and began to try to

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00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:08.440
get to the bottom of not only
Stephen's disappearance but his parents arrest. Charles

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00:23:08.440 --> 00:23:11.839
and Dorris ran through the events of
the day and what has happened since then

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00:23:11.880 --> 00:23:18.279
with Stephen's case. They denied having
anything to do with Stephen's disappearance and especially

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00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.880
with its murder, and they couldn't
understand what evidence the police had to arrest

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00:23:22.920 --> 00:23:29.599
them. Throughout the next seventeen weeks
that the couple remained out on bail,

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00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:36.000
there were many significant developments. Just
nine days after they were arrested, a

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00:23:36.079 --> 00:23:41.720
new witness came forward in the case. This witness was reportedly in mask on

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the twenty eighth of December nineteen ninety
two and saw Stephen walking towards the ship

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00:23:47.279 --> 00:23:52.680
in pub just up the road from
his home. This was somewhere between three

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00:23:52.680 --> 00:23:57.640
and four pm. This witness didn't
know Stephen, but when she found out

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00:23:57.640 --> 00:24:02.440
that he was missing after seeing an
appeal at the time, she asked her

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00:24:02.480 --> 00:24:06.160
family, who were with her to
confirm if it was Stephen that they saw.

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00:24:07.319 --> 00:24:11.839
They apparently confirmed this. She didn't
come forward in nineteen ninety two,

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00:24:11.880 --> 00:24:15.880
though, as she wasn't sure if
this was at all relevant to the investigation.

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00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:22.759
In twenty twenty, she decided to
come forward with this information and Cleveland

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00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:29.200
police publicized it, asking people to
come forward if they also had any information

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00:24:29.279 --> 00:24:34.160
related to this sighting. The fact
that this sighting put Stephen close to home

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00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:38.599
during the time period after he had
been seen at the toilets around three pm

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00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:45.759
suggested that he may have made his
way home after all. Charles and Dorris

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00:24:45.799 --> 00:24:48.599
said that this proved their point,
as they said they believed that he'd made

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00:24:48.599 --> 00:24:52.160
his way off the beach, and
it proved that this happened at the time

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00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.519
that they said it did. The
other way to look at this was that

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00:24:56.559 --> 00:25:00.599
Stephen was nearly home at that time
and that something happened to put him in

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00:25:00.640 --> 00:25:07.440
harm's way after that point. This
sighting was also filled with issues, given

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00:25:07.440 --> 00:25:15.279
that the witness came forward twenty eight
years after his disappearance. Charles and Dorris

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00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:18.480
were asked if they had had any
arguments with Stephen on the day that he

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00:25:18.599 --> 00:25:22.880
disappeared, and They continued to maintain
that they didn't and that like any families,

293
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:27.359
they had their ups and downs,
but nothing to explain his disappearance.

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00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:36.799
Fifty nine days after the couple's arrest, Cleveland police released some extracts from the

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00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:41.839
anonymous letter that had been received by
police in nineteen ninety nine, over twenty

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00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:48.799
years earlier. Police were once again
interested in trying to trace this letter writer

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00:25:48.119 --> 00:25:53.319
in case anyone now recognized the handwriting
or the author could come forward to identify

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00:25:53.400 --> 00:26:00.400
themselves. This suggested that the letter
was an important part of the investoration.

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00:26:02.279 --> 00:26:06.920
This worked, as around three weeks
later, another significant development was made.

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00:26:07.079 --> 00:26:12.519
The author of the letter did indeed
come forward. Police would later reveal some

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00:26:12.559 --> 00:26:18.599
information about the author and the letter. It would turn out that the contents

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00:26:18.599 --> 00:26:22.200
of the letter did implicate Stephen's parents, Doris and Charles, but that the

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00:26:22.319 --> 00:26:26.920
letter writer was a woman who had
no connection at all to the family.

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00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:32.079
She reportedly told police that she wrote
the letter in good faith, but that

305
00:26:32.200 --> 00:26:37.880
she didn't know them personally. This
is evident when you see the spelling used

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00:26:37.880 --> 00:26:41.759
of Stephen's name, with a P
h used in the middle rather than a

307
00:26:41.839 --> 00:26:48.880
V. This is obviously not someone
who knew him personally. This completely throughout

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00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:52.880
the validity of the letter, given
that this information was not based on any

309
00:26:52.920 --> 00:27:06.079
evidence of a crime. Stephen's parents
had been released on bail, but around

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00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:11.000
eighty days later police told them that
they were now not under investigation at all.

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00:27:11.319 --> 00:27:15.680
It would turn out that Cleveland police
had given the evidence they had to

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00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:19.200
the Crown Prosecution Service and they had
established that they didn't have enough evidence to

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00:27:19.240 --> 00:27:25.960
make a case. The police would
later tell Mike Williams Thomas in the documentary

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00:27:26.119 --> 00:27:30.200
that there was no new evidence that
precipitated the arrest, but that it was

315
00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.759
a combination of previous evidence that they
had collected that needed to be tested in

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00:27:33.799 --> 00:27:41.359
an investigation. Cleveland police said that
Charles and Dorris's account had changed over time,

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00:27:41.759 --> 00:27:47.000
however they deny this. Police also
said that they couldn't confirm that Charles

318
00:27:47.000 --> 00:27:49.400
had been at football that day as
he said he was, and that the

319
00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:53.839
new witness cite him put Stephen close
to home and that something must have happened

320
00:27:53.839 --> 00:28:00.359
to him after four pm. They
also said during their search of the Clark's

321
00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:03.920
home and garden, they didn't find
any evidence or remains, but they did

322
00:28:03.960 --> 00:28:10.039
find an area of interest they didn't
elaborate on this, and the Clarks said

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00:28:10.079 --> 00:28:15.759
they didn't know what they could be
talking about. The police also stated that

324
00:28:15.799 --> 00:28:21.759
the anonymous letter implicated Stephen's parents and
therefore supported their hypothesis at the time.

325
00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.599
This, of course, was later
less credible when the author came forward.

326
00:28:27.599 --> 00:28:32.880
While there was no further action on
Stephen's parents, the police did stress that

327
00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:36.680
they believed that some harm has come
to Stephen, as there is no proof

328
00:28:36.720 --> 00:28:40.799
of life since he disappeared, and
they are treating his case as a suspected

329
00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:45.480
murder. This is where Stephen's case
stands at the beginning of twenty twenty three.

330
00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:52.319
While Stephen's parents have been removed as
suspects in his murder, he still

331
00:28:52.359 --> 00:28:56.200
hasn't been found and the police believe
that he has come to some harm.

332
00:28:56.920 --> 00:29:02.240
Stephen's family have not only had to
deal with the missing person investigation and living

333
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:06.599
without him for thirty years, but
in recent times they have also had to

334
00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:11.279
deal with the stress and strain of
being suspected in his murder. This has

335
00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:18.359
put huge pressure on them as a
family. Stephen's sister Victoria stated in an

336
00:29:18.440 --> 00:29:23.079
article at the end of last month. The police portrayed us as a violent

337
00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:29.119
family. They were determined to put
a slur on us. Stephen going missing

338
00:29:29.160 --> 00:29:33.200
has been a living nightmare for all
of us. At the time when Stephen

339
00:29:33.240 --> 00:29:37.519
went missing, the police did very
little to support us, to put us

340
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:41.200
through this trauma instead of focusing on
finding Stephen. Has been extremely damaging and

341
00:29:41.240 --> 00:29:47.880
a total misuse of resource. Our
relationship as a family was love filled.

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00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:53.720
Stephen and I couldn't have wished for
a happier childhood. Victoria added how difficult

343
00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:57.920
it was when Stephen first went missing
and how this hasn't improved with time.

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00:30:00.039 --> 00:30:03.039
Added. In the early days,
there was always one of us in the

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00:30:03.119 --> 00:30:08.319
house whilst other family members were searching. I had never seen my dad cry

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00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:14.359
until that moment. It was an
emotional time and so difficult to feel so

347
00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:19.880
helpless. We felt desperation. Even
years later, I'm constantly looking in crowds.

348
00:30:22.119 --> 00:30:25.240
I was driving a couple of months
ago when I saw a man walking

349
00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:30.559
with a limp. I took a
double take and burst into tears. The

350
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:34.359
grief can come out of nowhere,
even when you're least expecting it. Special

351
00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:40.440
holidays were especially difficult for the family. We didn't celebrate Christmas for about eight

352
00:30:40.519 --> 00:30:45.079
years, no decorations, no joy. It just felt wrong without Stephen being

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00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:52.000
there. Someone somewhere must know something. Any small detail, even if you

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00:30:52.079 --> 00:30:56.640
think it's insignificant, could prove to
be an important lead. Dealing with ambiguous

355
00:30:56.640 --> 00:31:02.759
loss is a life sentence. Constant, painful limbo of not knowing is a

356
00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:07.440
horrible thing to live with. We
still hope that he will walk through the

357
00:31:07.440 --> 00:31:11.400
door one day, but we appreciate
that as each year passes, it becomes

358
00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:17.920
more and more unlikely. We just
want to know what happened. The family

359
00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:22.480
wants to relaunch the appeal to find
Stephen, and it's evident what his disappearance

360
00:31:22.519 --> 00:31:26.039
and the subsequent investigation did to Charles
and Doris and the rest of the Clark

361
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:32.480
family. They are working with the
charity Missing People to relaunch the appeal into

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00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:37.200
Stephen's disappearance and hope that they will
find out something that can help them locate

363
00:31:37.319 --> 00:31:42.680
him. Cleveland Police made a statement
saying we currently have no active lines of

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00:31:42.759 --> 00:31:48.720
inquiry on this case. However,
we will always continue to respond to intelligence

365
00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:55.160
and information which may help us to
locate Stephen. If people do have information,

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00:31:55.400 --> 00:31:57.839
no matter how insignificant it may seem, then I would urge them to

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00:31:57.880 --> 00:32:07.160
contact police one oh one, our
contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously at crimestoppers dash

368
00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:13.759
UK dot org or call eight hundred
five five five one one one. If

369
00:32:13.799 --> 00:32:17.240
you know anything about the disappearance of
Stephen Clark in nineteen ninety two, then

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00:32:17.319 --> 00:32:22.359
please come forward, do the right
thing and help his family. There is

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00:32:22.480 --> 00:32:28.359
very little to suggest what really did
happen that Monday afternoon. Did Stephen walk

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00:32:28.359 --> 00:32:31.559
away from the beach and get into
an accident? Was he approached by someone

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00:32:31.640 --> 00:32:37.200
that wanted to do him harm?
We simply don't know, but it may

374
00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:40.160
only take one person with a small
piece of information to solve it. So

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00:32:40.200 --> 00:32:45.079
if you do know anything, please
come forward. I will link all the

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00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:51.960
information in the show notes, including
Steven's Missing People profile. Thank you for

377
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:55.039
listening to today's episode. If you'd
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378
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381
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382
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383
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384
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ten Minute True Crime, which tells
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385
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386
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that wherever you listen, and in
the show notes. As always, I'm

387
00:33:37.559 --> 00:33:39.880
Caprice and this has been unseen